September 12, 2012

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University and Indiana
University Health Arnett on Wednesday (Sept. 12) announced a joint clinical
research study on colorectal cancer, focused on broadening participation from
patients in more rural parts of the state.

Research teams from the two
universities are working with colorectal cancer data to develop tools for
helping improve prevention, treatment and care of those with cancer. With the
clinical data, researchers are refining statistical and engineering simulation
models to predict how to treat and possibly prevent cancer.

"This is
another terrific example of how great things can happen when IU, Purdue and the
private sector collaborate on a major challenge facing our world - in this
case, colorectal cancer," said Vic Lechtenberg, acting executive vice
president for academic affairs and provost at Purdue. "This partnership between IU Health Arnett and
Purdue widens the bridge for our scientists and clinicians."

Added Dr. Wael Harb, director of Oncology and Research for IU
Health Arnett in Lafayette and a partner in the Purdue-IU research advocacy
effort: "Cancer won't be
eradicated in a single laboratory by an individual researcher. We all must come
together to assist the research that's being done to give doctors the tools
they need to better diagnose and treat cancer."

"Here in a community setting like Lafayette-West
Lafayette, that's where 90 percent of cancer
patients are treated," said Marietta Harrison,
associate vice president for research
at Purdue and director of Discovery Park's
Oncological Sciences Center who is leading the Purdue portion of the partnership
with IU Health Arnett.

Since the clinical study gained federal approval on July
31, the cancer study has gained more than a dozen participants.

The key to conquering cancer
is early detection, Harrison said. A focus of the Cancer Care Engineering
project is to discover biomarkers in individual's blood and tissue that will
predict susceptibility to colon cancer, its early onset and which treatment is
most likely to work. This research requires this type of partnership with the medical
community and help from local individuals who wish to participate in research
studies.

"Partnership with IU Health Arnett in this clinical
trial on colorectal cancer will help our researchers from Purdue and IU gather
samples that will give us a more complete picture of the progression of cancer
in patients," Harrison said.

According to Dr. Harb, more
than 1,000 drugs designed to treat cancer are in the pipeline. But it can take
15-20 years of regulatory hurdles and other steps for a single drug to reach a
patient. At the same time, 5 percent or fewer of all cancer patients currently
participate in clinical trials. That percentage must climb if the medical
community stands any chance of defeating cancer, he said.

"People are still dying
of cancer, and that's not acceptable. So we need to find answers," Harb
said. "Research is the only way to find a cure for cancer. Without
research, we'd have zero chance to treat cancer."

In conjunction with this partnership, Purdue and IU Simon Cancer Center received a $500,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health this spring to
launch a regional Research Advocacy Network for educating the public about the role they can play in cancer research.

The community-based project, awarded to Purdue and the IU Simon Cancer
Center through their joint Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute project, is housed at IU Health Arnett in Lafayette.
It involves the Dallas-based Research Advocacy Network (RAN), which is a nonprofit organization formed in 2003 to bring together participants in the research process with a focus on educating, supporting and connecting patient advocates with the medical research community.

"We can't change what has
already happened. But we can make a difference in how cancer is fought
for those yet to come," said project partner Lori Miller, outreach
coordinator for the Lafayette-based Community Cancer Network in north central
Indiana. "Cancer is survivable. And we can make it so for more
people."

Miller knows that firsthand.
She has battled three separate cancers in the past decade and today is cancer
free. Now, she spends her time encouraging people to participate in cancer
research. Even those not currently suffering from cancer can help in this
cause.

"Without more people
participating in these trials, drugs that researchers at Purdue and elsewhere
will not get the approval in time to help people," Miller said.

The Cancer Care Engineering
project is applying systems-engineering principles, data visualization and
statistical modeling to the broad spectrum of cancer prevention, treatment and
care delivery. The multi-institutional project brings together oncologists,
health service researchers, engineers, biologists and others in the war on
cancer.

Included
are Purdue researchers from the Oncological Sciences Center and the
Purdue University Center for Cancer Research, Bindley Bioscience Center,
Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering and the
Rosen Center for Advanced Computing along with collaborators from the IU
Simon Cancer Center, IU Health Arnett, Regenstrief Institute/Indiana
University Center for Health Services & Outcomes Research, Notre
Dame and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The Oncological Sciences
Center, created through a gift from Lilly Endowment in 2005 and housed in the
Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, is the Discovery Park arm of the
Purdue Center for Cancer Research. It builds on existing research areas and is
expanding Purdue's thrust into nanotechnology, drug delivery, and cancer care
and prevention.

The Indiana CTSI is a
statewide collaboration of IU, Purdue and Notre Dame, as well as public and
private partnerships, which facilitates the translation of scientific
discoveries in the lab into clinical trials and new patient treatments in
Indiana and beyond.

Led by Anantha Shekhar, the
principal investigator of the Indiana CTSI and professor and associate dean for
translational research at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Indiana
CTSI was established in 2008 with a $25 million Clinical and Translational
Science Award from the National Center for Research Resources of the National
Institutes of Health, together with nearly $60 million from the state, the
three member universities, and public and private donors.

The Indiana CTSI is a member
of a national network of 55 CTSA-funded organizations across the United States.